We’ve created this site because we love smokeless cigarettes – also called vapor or electronic cigarettes. We’ve put together reviews of the best brands on the market, and everything else we think you need to know about vaping.

Here’s picture we took of some of the e-cig brands we have vaped, and there are more that you will find on our site:

About E Cigarettes:

The American public is undecided about electronic cigarettes. The government and health officials could paint a grim picture of uncertainty and lurking danger, while e-cig companies say everything is fine. No one will be harmed by electronic cigarettes.

The fact is that the industry is not yet regulated (though steps towards regulation by the FDA have been initiated), and will face scrutiny in the next few months and years before the business of making, selling, and using electronic cigarettes is fully understood. Maybe there is some danger, but there are many great things happening in this exploding industry.

Advantages

The first thing you have to know about e cigarettes is that they do not produce smoke. If smoke is coming from your e cig, it’s on fire. The battery has overheated and is melting, not to mention the rest of your juice and the tank perhaps. This is a risk which, though not entirely gone, is fading with increased quality from manufacturers. The firms whose products did not pass muster are falling away to be replaced by better products and materials.

An electronic cigarette produces vapor by heating a substance known as e-liquid or nicotine juice. The juice contains at least two ingredients: propylene glycol and flavoring. If you are continuing to vape nicotine, this will be added, plus perhaps vegetable glycerin.

When an e-juice company adds vegetable glycerin to his juice, he will mix it with either propylene glycol or distilled water. All of this is heated to create a (you hope) thick vapor which tastes and smells wonderful. Advertisers say the vapor is odorless, but it actually smells of whatever it tastes like.

Think about the difference this could make overall. Smoke from a cigarette contains thousands of toxins. A smoker and anyone around him when he smokes inhale these poisons.

They linger on clothes, in people’s hair, and in furnishings. Realtors trying to sell a home where smokers have lived will have a terrible time trying to get rid of that smell so non-smokers no longer notice it. Non-smokers are very sensitive to those odors.

Vapor is white, not grey-brown like a smoke cloud.

Getting Started

Electronic cigarettes in their most basic form are thin pen-like items designed to mimic the appearance of cigarettes. They weigh a little bit more than a cigarette and might be slightly bigger, but the finished item passes closely enough for a cigarette so that a smoker can gradually change his habit.

Not only the nicotine but also the feel of a cigarette between one’s fingers and in her mouth have become part of the addiction. Analog-style vaping pens cover a need to feel like you are really smoking.

A mini e cig of this type uses a battery with very limited power: about 180mAh. It can produce a reasonable amount of vapor for its size if the battery voltage is 4.2 or the resistance is really low, but usually resistance cannot be made terribly low and voltage is frequently 3.7volts. Besides that, 180mAh batteries only last a couple of hours. Their power dwindles slowly, and so does vapor.

In just weeks a vaper (you’re not a smoker anymore) will wonder if there is a more powerful device sold anywhere with a bigger battery so the vapor will be thicker. There are many styles of battery and electronic cigarette units beyond the mini cig, but do not rush into things.

The easiest next step you want to take is to buy an eGo with its manual battery. The eGo contains more power (at least twice but often 4X as much power as the mini cig). A larger tank contains more liquid and, being empty when you buy it, is filled with flavors besides pre-filled cartomizers by the makers of mini cigs. You can also use certain standard sized cartomizers if you just want to enjoy the extra battery life of an eGo.

Flavors – A.K.A ‘E Cig Juice’ or ‘E-Liquid’ or ‘Vape Juice’

Now you can play around with both flavors and e-liquid companies. This is when you find out how different one type of apple vape can be from another if two firms use different ratios of vegetable glycerin and propylene glycol, or if a company adds alcohol and chemicals to his drink.

What makes the biggest difference when it comes to flavor? Is it the e-juice manufacturer or something else? Three factors contribute to the flavor you experience from a type of juice. Firstly, did you steep your e-juice? If not, then it could be a good idea to stick it in a cupboard out of direct sunlight and let the flavors build, especially if it was custom made when you ordered it.

Another factor is definitely the make of juice. Some brands are tinged with an artificial taste that spoils the flavor for lots of customers, but not all.

Finally there is the relationship between resistance and voltage to consider now that you have used manual eGos for a while. Your experience of electronic cigarettes just left the e cigarettes 101 classroom and entered the next level of complexity.

E-Cigarette Tank Systems

E cig tanks are not the tubes that hold liquid. They aren’t clearomizers or cartomizers. A tank is more specific than that, though the terms are interchanged. The names, with new ones added and proprietary versions in the mix, make understanding the roll and configuration of each one difficult and confusing.

Tanks are not Cartomizers

A cartomizer is a metal tube containing an atomizer. It is what comes with min cigs unless you have an old version using a separate atomizer. Filler inside the cartomizer soaks up juice so your atomizer can heat it up to make vapor. Every time you throw one of these out, the atomizer goes with it. There are no rebuildable or replaceable parts, but empty ones last for several vaping sessions.

Clearomizers are like Cartomizers

These devices are similar to cartomizers. The atomizer is built in so the whole thing is disposable at the end of a vessel’s life. In this case, however, the cartridge is clear and larger than a cartomizer. Whereas you once vaped on 0.9mls of juice before refilling, now you can fill the tank with 1.2mls or more.

A Tankomizer works in a similar way but is not transparent. There are some rebuildable versions of both where wicks can be replaced.

Tanks: A Generation Ahead

Now you get to tanks. Those items above are one-piece items, some of which can be taken apart so the atomizer is replaced. If you want a fully rebuildable item, however, an e cig tank should provide that.

Some atomizers do not come with tanks: they are dripping atomizers, meaning the vaper slowly drips e-liquid straight into it as he puffs. You are meant to fill a tank atomizer and let the juice drip through without any personal effort.

A tank system comes in two basic pieces: the inner cartomizer and outer tank. The cartomizer is punched with a hole to let the atomizer heat your liquid (or you can buy cartomizers that still need to be punched, plus the punching device).

Boge is the one of the most popular lines of cartomizers. The cartomizer is thrown away, but the tank remains and possibly the atomizer so long as it is still working. Some tanks are made of plastic, others of Pyrex.

Pyrex vs. Plastic

Glass tanks are expensive and breakable, even the highly durable Pyrex versions you can buy for your e cig systems. They boast advantages over plastics, however.

For one thing, a plastic tank cannot be used with numerous juices on the market. These are strong liquids featuring spices or acidic flavors that are known to crack plastic.

A Pyrex tank resists these corrosive substances. It is also a clean medium for your liquid, whereas plastics sometimes leave juices tasting like the tank they have been warming-up in.

Brands of Tanks

A 2.5ml NBC (Vivi Nova Bottom Coil) tank unscrews from the bottom. While you are possibly used to dripping liquid through the top, you turn the NBC upside down to fill it.

A Smoktech 808 Slim Vivi Nova is not the same product, nor is it compatible. Notice the 808 threading: a lot of devices possess eGo/510 threading which refers to inner and outer threads.

The Vivi Nova would need an adapter to fit those items. It features 2ml capacity and 2.4ohms of resistance. Unscrew the bottom to replace your atomizer but fill it from the top.

One of the most famous and best loved tanks is the Protank (now on version 3). A 2.5ml Pyrex tank comes with bottom mounted coils you can change. Refill from the base. The head of your built-in atomizer turns so you are able to adjust air flow. This changes the tightness of your draw.

Variable Devices

Personal vaporizers or APVs are made so the customer is encouraged to change how hot the vapor is. He can do this by change voltage on his battery. This is adjusted via a knurled dial at the bottom or by pressing a button and watching numbers change on a screen. Extra voltage (up to 6 volts on some vaporizers) makes juice hotter.

You can make it hotter still by lowering resistance in the atomizer. With the combination of high voltage and low resistance your vapor is supremely warm, but it is possible to overdo that ratio. Look for charts showing you the ideal or safe figures so as not to burn out your battery or choose ineffective settings.

A variable voltage device is great, and many kits cost less than $100 with a battery, tank, and atomizers.

Mechanical Mods

Mechanical devices cannot be set to a certain voltage but they work with rebuildable atomizers, so resistance can and should be chosen according to the battery power you choose. While a variable voltage battery is the device itself, a mechanical mod is a tube to which a battery is added.

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